Earlier this month, nearly 60 girls showed up for SMUS field hockey tryouts. That has translated into a full and deep competitive team, an over-flowing development side and the need to make cuts for the first time in the program’s history. To say the sport is booming at the school is a bit of an understatement.
“It’s a nice problem to have,” admits David Kerr, who has been coaching the SMUS Senior Girls team since 2006.
Kerr has seven grade 12s among his 16-player competitive roster – veterans from the SMUS team that finished fifth in the province last year and some a part of the 2022 provincial championship-winning side. And although the Blue Jags lost “a great crop” of departing seniors from that 2023 team, Kerr believes SMUS will again be in the thick of the chase for the BC AA title come November. That crop included defenders Wynn Brown ('24), now playing at UBC and Mia Muller ('24), playing at Queen's, as well as Talia Pike ('24), part of the goalkeeper squad at UVic.
“I think we will be reasonably competitive provincially,” Kerr says. “We have some very good core players with provincial and national-program experience. It’s a question of our supporting players and how well they play around that core – how fast they can develop.”
The Blue Jags’ core players include Grade 11 Mackenna Brown and a trio of Grade 12s – Caitlyn Mullen, Kendyll Adams and midfielder Avery Geddes. Brown, Mullen and Geddes will anchor the center of the pitch, with Adams providing the offensive finish in the other end.
Brown was a named squad member of the Canadian Under 21 team but opted out of competing in the Junior Pan American Championship during a busy competitive season. Brown did play a big role with Team BC Blue's gold-medal win at the U18 national championships. Mullen captained the BC White team at the same championship, where she was named to Tournament XI, and, alongside Adams, picked up a silver medal. Geddes, spent much of her summer playing for the provincial U17 basketball team which finished fourth at the Canadian championships, but her multi-sport athlete background and long-time youth experience in field hockey provides the right balance of athleticism to the squad.
Some of the up-and-coming players who will be key for the Blue Jags this year include Grade 12 Rio Usugaya, a Japanese student who has shown significant improvement in her time with SMUS field hockey and is now a starting defender; Grade 10 midfielder Anna Beaudry; and Grade 12 goalkeeper Amelie Fleck.
Kerr guided the Blue Jags to the 2022 BC AA Championship and has a number of provincial top four finishes as a coach. He rates Collingwood as the likely AA favourite in BC but will need to see more of the province’s other teams before knowing where the Blue Jags fit in. He expects that other teams in the mix will be York House, Little Flower Academy, Brentwood College, Shawnigan Lake School and Glenlyon Norfolk School.
“We’ve got a pretty good mix of 10s, 11s and 12s,” Kerr says. “You kind of just never know where you stack up but I would say top six (in BC) and hopefully top four. It’s all very tight.”
The SMUS competitive team has yet to lose a game this season after going undefeated in the season-opening Friendship Cup at Duncan and winning its first league match by a 6-0 count last week against Reynolds. The Blue Jags followed that up with a 4-1 decision over Glenlyon Norfolk School in an important league matchup this Monday.
SMUS will play in the Ferreira Cup Tournament this coming weekend, September 27-28, in Duncan, followed by the Independent Schools Athletic Association (ISAA) Tournament the next weekend, October 4-5, at Shawnigan Lake School. Over the Thanksgiving long weekend, SMUS will compete in the prestigious Bridgman Cup at UVic, the oldest field hockey tournament in North America.
SMUS and GNS will co-host the Vancouver Island AA Tournament on October 25 at UVic. The Blue Jags will once again play host to the 16-team provincial AA tournament November 6 to 8, also at UVic.
Behind the bench, Kerr returns assistant coach Georgia Booker, a former UVic field hockey midfielder who was a part of a dynasty squad that won four-straight U SPORTS national titles. This year, the Blue Jags will also benefit from the newly hired SMUS Director of Marketing and Communications, Ali Baggott, who was a national champion and Player of the Year with UVic and a long-time member of Canada’s national team. Baggott has a storied high-performance and youth coaching history to add to the mix. Booker and Baggott will complement the experienced Kerr through what will be a very competitive fall season.
While only 16 are named to the competitive side, there is no shortage of talent and promise in the development team program. This bridge program offers a more accessible way for new players to join the sport and play teams across the city that don't have the experience or recruitment for full teams right at the start of September. The teams play a mix of 7-aside and 11-aside formats to get players more touches on the ball. The SMUS development side is lucky to return Leslie Moffat, a local product who has played club hockey her whole life and hails from a family of hockey players. Moffat is joined by Meggan Oliver ('96), another former UVic and Canadian national team player and also SMUS Alumni. Last week, the Development team showed great improvement coming back from a 2-0 deficit to score their team's first goals of the season and tie 2-2 against Lambrick. Grade 9 Michaela Yee and Grade 10 Mimi Ilnytzky provided the goals, while Grade 10 Mia Wong had a fantastic performance in goal, her first year trying out the position.
